Let me introduce myself. I am Svetlana Kovina. I was born in Germany on the 5th
of May in 1984. Now I am 17 and I study in 11th
grade in 139th
school in Kazan. I have a large family. There are five of us: my parents, my brother, my sister and me. My dad is a businessman and my mom keeps the house and takes care of us. My family and I are Christians. We all attend Free Evangelical Church in Kazan. Most of our friends also share our beliefs and we spend much time together. As for me, to believe in God means to live and that’s why I am always busy in church. With other women we often visit orphanages and give Bibles to everyone that we can. I also help our church friends by being a babysitter for little children. On Sundays and Saturdays our flat is often full of people. We come together to speak about Jesus Christ and to share the experience of our Christian life. My family is also always very happy when Missioners come to our city and stay in our flat. It gives me a chance to meet new people from different cities and even foreign countries. I am really glad to get on well with so many people and I always try to be friendly with everyone. I want to live my life so I will not be ashamed later.

Actually it’s not a simple matter to describe myself but I will do my best. First of all I would like to say that I try to do all things with love and patience and to follow the golden rule: do to others as you would have them do to you.. It works in most situations but sometimes I have to close my eyes and to count till hundred to calm down. If you ask my best friend to describe me in three words, he will say that I am very romantic, dreamy and shy. Then he will surely mention that I really love chocolate and Teddy-bears. And if you ask my parents to describe me, the first phrase you will hear is "we never have problems with her, she is always quiet". But in my opinion, there are situations when I can come out of control, but it happens not very often. I don’t like large crowds of people, they make me feel confused. I would prefer to spend an evening alone in my room or together with my best friend. We have much in common and sometimes we just sit together and keep silent for hours. In winter we watch snowflakes falling down to the ground, in summer we enjoy bright stars on dark blue sky. So it’s me – a person with sand-castles in the head. But don’t think that I can’t be serious or I don’t have intention in life. Like all people I know what I wish to achieve in future and I do my best to make my dreams come true.

I don’t have much spare-time after school and university courses, that’s the reason why I do not go in for sports or don’t visit any clubs. When I am tired or have a free hour I lay on my bed and listen to some music. My musical tastes are different, but I consider myself an old-fashioned girl. My favorite songs were written in old 70-es and they were always popular among lovers. To my mind, this music is a voice for the thoughts and feelings. And there is also another way to relax for me – that’s TV. Watching some nice videos or TV programs with a family is always very interesting. I really like horror movies, but my parents often don’t let me watch them, because sometimes they cause nightmares. I am also fond of reading. It’s hard to name all my favorite books, but I can say that the majority of them are Christian. And of course, the best book I ever read and still do is Bible. This book is full of so many advises that I try to use in my life and of so many good examples that help me to understand people. It taught me to love and to see the beauty, it made me believe in myself. I can say with sure that This book of life is eternal, for all people and for all centuries.

Now I would like to tell you about the most memorable moments of my life. There are many of them but the happiest moment is the moment of love. I ask you to excuse me if it sounds too primitive or strange for 17-years old girl, but I have a really strong wish to tell about it. My best friend, or my boyfriend, just a year ago was my pen pal. We had usual Internet friendship and I couldn’t imagine that someday I could see him in real life. After months of friendship I found myself always worrying of him, dreaming and thinking. And then last summer he visited me. I guess even if I wished I couldn’t express all those thoughts and feelings I had while waiting for him at the airport. But now looking back to the past I can say that the first moment when we looked into each other’s eyes made me fly on cloud number nine. Now he is not only my boyfriend, we are someone like soul-mates. We can speak without words, I can guess all his thoughts, he can make me cry with tears of joy. Unfortunately we both have to study and can’t meet very often. But I believe that parting will make us stronger. As it was once said: If there were no tears, we would never see a rainbow. We found each other in the distance of 3000 km and I think it already means something. We are engaged for almost one year and I am waiting to see him again this summer.

And if everything goes fine, then I will stay with him in Germany to go on with my education. I suppose my future profession will be connected with computers. I think that computer systems are the future of the humanity. I use computer for learning and for searching for necessary information in Internet. When I am online I forget about time. To have the whole world on the computer screen is a wonderful feeling and it fascinates me greatly. I admire people who know everything about computer systems and I hope to become one of them in future. Nowadays mostly the whole world is computerized. Computers can easily do the things a human can hardly do in mind. I want to create new techniques to make our life more simple.

I am sure that all people are special in something and that means I am also special. And I know that the road I take in life is special. But I also know that it won’t lead me to happiness. But here is one simple reason for it: there is no road to happiness – happiness is the road itself.